Leaving N.Z.

A lot of important events in my life seem to have played out in cars.
When I was 11 in the car with my folks coming home from God knows where, they sprung the idea that we should move to Australia on me. I was outraged at this notion.
I had been friends with the same group of girls since I was 2. We were all about to start high school together. It was going to be wonderful.
They thought that the weather would be better for my mothers sickness though, so I didn't have a choice. Now I realize that the move to Australia was also a effort to save their marriage. Within a few months we were gone. Our worldly goods that had not been garage sales away were put into storage in the basement of one of my 'aunts and uncles' properties (the same people that have recently betrayed us). I had a farewell party with my friends who all promised to stay in contact.

I cried and cried. We arrived in Australia with three days booked in a hotel in Brisbane and a suitcase each. On the third day my father brought a car off a man in a petrol station where we were buying drinks, the old man had a flat tyre, Dad helped him change it, then offered him a few thousand dollars in cash for the car. The man accepted and we gave him a lift home.

That night we drove to the Sunshine Coast. Slept in the car - we spent a couple of days in a hotel there while Mum and Dad had a look for 'oppurtunities'.
They saw one. A beach kiosk for rent, in the hub of a surf and holiday atmosphere with no icecream stores for miles around.
If the place hadn't already been rented I may have been a fat surfer chick today.

After that disapointment and no idea what to do we drove up a hill overlooking the coast, had fish and chips for dinner, where my parents decided to blindley stick a pin in their map of australia and go where it lead.

The pin landed on the Gold Coast. My father and I had wanted to go to the theme parks anyway so after dinner we left. Late that night we arrived on the coast, and drove around looking for somewhere to stay the night. Mum quickly spotted the hotel her friend stays at while holidaying to the Gold Coast from N.Z. so we checked for the night.

We didn't leave that apartment for over 3 years.